


King of Hearts

by tourdefierce



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Death, Drabble, Explicit Language, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-06
Updated: 2012-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-29 01:41:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/314462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tourdefierce/pseuds/tourdefierce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Death and Merlin have a very interesting relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	King of Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd.
> 
> Originally posted at LJ: October 18th, 2010.

He marries Death when he gives his heart to Arthur. Unconsciously.

The engagement isn't long because the Questing Beast sets a very firm date and Nimueh doesn't like to be left waiting when she presides over unions. She gets cranky.

The exchanged rings coil tight around Merlin's finger until the metal melts, molten and binding, into the flesh of his finger. It burns all the way down to his bone and disappears inside of him.

Their wedding night isn't special. Merlin has had Death inside of him before; thrusting, twisting, splintering and claiming until he's nothing but ruin. Yes. He's no blushing virgin to Death's brutal style of fucking. They've had rendezvous before.

And although Merlin doesn't welcome their time together, it is far from rape.

It's sacrifice. For Camelot.  
For Arthur

.

The words are dusty in his mouth but wild in his heart. Gauis sees them; the way Death gleams on Merlin's left hand and clutches at his tongue is clear to the old physician. Gauis sees it but assigns it to youth's folly. King Uther sees it as weakness, a weakness that is old and familiar to him. Kilgharrah sees it every time they meet. Only he seems to see it as it is. A sorcerer tangled up in destiny and love. Was there ever a line between the two? If there was, Merlin never saw it. Was everything before Camelot building to this Arthurian destiny? Was Merlin crafted for Arthur by the Old Religion?

It feels like it. It feels like he was molded as a gift, a consolation prize; We'll take away your mother, fill your father with cold grief that evolves into hatred, we'll turn your sister against you in madness and we'll rip your wife away from you but we'll give you a boy-wizard who will be forever tied to you by destiny and immortal love. We'll give him to you and you can choose to do whatever you want with him. He's silly and lovesick and _pathetic_ but he'll be yours. No matter what happens, he'll be there and if you want him to, he'll rule the world for you. If you want him, you can have him. If you don't, you can cast him aside... he'll still be there.

Merlin serves two masters. He's made by the old ways and he's bound to Death in the same chains. But his servitude of Arthur is on an entirely different level that shackles him and plagues him in the same way it breathes life into his marriage bed.

He will die hundreds of deaths in the name of Arthur's heart. He will die only a few for the Old Religion and none for himself. It is such that immortality reigns in only the pure of heart, however lost and bound they are.

When Arthur kisses him, presses his lips against Merlin's, life shifts in the wrong direction. Death wails in vengeance and the Old Religion arches a delicate eyebrow, while Kilgharrah shakes his heavy head and heavier heart.

King Arthur, the defector of destiny and the lover of all kings will change the course of a bound life with a simple, yet unexpected, twist of his own unpredictable heart. Death will come for him, it is sure. The Old Religion will haunt him for upsetting their delicate plans by taking more than his share of their allotted goods. The world will shake for him before bowing before him in submission.

There are shackles of many kinds. There are marriages that run longer than the course of time or one man's life. There are destinies that unfold more than once. But the love of one man is enough to change everything.

The love of Arthur, Once and Future King, will free the most shackled and well made pawn of fate. He will free Merlin and punish all who tried to bind him.


End file.
